High pressure casing packer



1955 R. E. CLOUD H IGH PRESSURE CASING PACKER Filed July 22, 1953 a Mk4!Atkorngys United States Patent 1 2,729,293 HIGH PRESSURE CASING PACKERRobert E. Cloud, Independence, Kans., assignor to Cloud Packer & Tool,Inc., Wichita, Kans., a corporation of Kansas Application July 22, 1953,Serial No. 369,645 7 Claims. (Cl. 166-118) This invention relates to theoil well drilling and well treating art.

It is now quite common, after an oil well has been drilled, to treat thepay strata by oil pressure, sandfracting, hydrafracting, and like. Thisis accomplished after the casing has been set and comprises theintroduction of the treating substance or solution into the oil bearingstrata under great pressures for purposes of breaking up the strata andinducting oil flow.

Inasmuch as the matter is introduced through a pipe extending downwardlyin the casing, a seal is necessary between the lower end of the pipe andthe casing. Such seal means are called packers and heretofore have beenvery complicated and costly. Furthermore, they are most difiicult tooperate and in some cases become so unmanageable that they can not beremoved from their great depth of operation, and the well is thus ruinedand must be abandoned at great financial loss.

Therefore, the principal object of my invention is to provide a simplebut effective packer that is under the complete control of the operatorat all times.

A further object of my invention is to provide a packer for oil fieldusage that can be set accuratedy at the desired depth.

A still further object of this invention is to provide an oil or gaswell packer that may be easily and quickly removed from the well afterit has served its purpose.

Still further objects of this invention are to provide a packer that iseconomical in manufacture and durable In use.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

My invention consists in the construction, arrangement, and combinationof the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated areattained as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims,and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a side longitudinal sectional view of my packer in a casingand ready for use,

Fig. 2 is a side view of my packer illustrating the method of itsremoval from a well,

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view of the device taken on line 3-3 of Fig.1, and

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view of the packer taken on line 4-4 of Fig.1 and more fully illustrates its construction.

In these drawings I have used the numeral to designate a well casingsuch as would be in a drilled well and after it has been cemented in.

The numeral 11 designates the pipe used to place the packer at thedesired depth and through which the cracking or like medium is injectedunder great pressure. The numeral 12 designates a collar or fittinghaving standard right hand internal threads in its upper portion andleft hand internal threads in its lower portion. The upper portion ofthis member 12 is threaded onto the lower end of the pipe 11. Thenumeral 13 designates a plate ring loosely embracing the pipe 11 andabove the collar 12. This ring has four equally spaced apart cut awayslits 14 in its edge portion for slidably receiving the lengths of fourelongated bolt rods 15, 16, 17 and 18 respectively. Each of these rodshas a head or nut at its upper end to limit the relative downwardmovement of the rods through the plate ring. The numeral 19 designates apipe section having its upper end threaded into the lower end portion ofa second collar 35, which in turn has its upper end threaded into thecollar 12. The numeral 20 designates a wedge slip expander keyed to butlongitudinally slidably mounted around the pipe section 19. This conebearing has four spaced apart longitudinal dovetail or like grooves 21slidably carrying the four wedge slip members 22, 23, 24 and 25respectively. The lower ends of the four rods 15, 16, 17 and 18 aresecured to these four wedge slip members 22, 23, 24 and 25 respectively.

The numeral 26 designates a cap on the top of the wedge slip expanderfor limiting the upward sliding movement of the wedge slips. The numeral27 designates stops for limiting the downward sliding movement of thewedge slips. The numeral 28 designates a spacing weight member securedto the wedge slip expander by suitable means, and like the expander,slidably embraces the pipe section. Secured by any suitable detachablemeans to the bottom of the member 28 is a rubber or like inverted cup29. The numeral 30 designates a spreader bell on the lower end of thepipe section capable of engaging the inside of the cup and expanding thesame when moved upwardly relative to the cup. The inside of this bellcommunicates with the inside of the pipe section, which communicateswith the inside of the collar 35, which communicates with the inside ofthe collar 12, and which communicates in turn with the inside of thepipe 11.

The practical operation of my device is as follows:

The unit is allowed to move downwardly in the casing until the chosendepth is reached. This is easily ascertained by suspending a plumb bobof known length from the top of the casing down to the pin 36 in thecollar 12 and adding to the length of the pipe 11 that is within thecasing. The downward movement of the unit is easy inasmuch as the wedgeslips will slide away from the direction of travel and upwardly on thewedge slip expander. The rubber cup will be in constricted condition.After the desired depth is reached, the pipe 11 is pulled slightlyupwardly, thereby moving the wedge slip expander also upwardly andforcing the wedge slips into expanding contact with the inside of thecasing, thus rigidly locking the unit in place. With the wedge slipexpander incapable of further upward movement, a further lifting of thepipe will bring the bell into the rubber cup, thereby spreading the sameand sealing the inside of the pipe from the inside of the casing abovethe rubber cup. At this time the treating fluid may be passed underpressure through the pipe and unit to an area below the packer. Withsuch great pressure below the packer, the wedge slips will only tend tolock with the casing more rigidly. Also the rubber cup becomes a one wayvalve seal. After the treatment of the potential well, the packer isremoved. This is accomplished by turning the pipe 11 to the right,thereby unscrewing it and its collar 12 from the left hand threads onthe second collar 35 as shown in Fig. 2. By

reciprocating the pipe and collar 12 and thus hammering on the top ofthe collar 35, the pipe shaft will be dr'ven downwardly to bring thebell down from the rubber cup, thereby permitting the cup to contract.Also the downward movement of the wedge slip expander will cause thewedge slips to ride upwardly and inwardly on the expander and out ofengagement with the inside of the casing. At this time the rods comeinto use by their top nuts contacting the plate ring and their lowerends supporting the wedge slips, which in turn support the stop plate 26and thus the entire packer. Inasmuch as all the packer parts are out ofrigid engagement with the inside of the casing, the entire unit with thepipe 11 may be withdrawn upwardly from the well. There is no change ofthe wedge slips again engaging the casing during the withdrawaloperation, as the weight of the major portion of the unit will besuspended from the slips which will be obviously slid upwardly andinwardly on the wedge slip expander.

Packers herebefore have been very large and elon gated. Once stuck in awell, it is impossible to drill through them or dispose of them. If forsome unknown reason my packer could not be removed, it is so small thatit would be easily disposed of and due to its low cost of manufacture,no great loss would be experienced. Furthermore, and more important, thewell would not be. lost.

Once the unit is removed from the well, the rods may be moved outwardlyfrom the spreader ring 13' and the unit will fall from the pipe unit 11.The only part that might be damaged and need replacing would bethe pipefittings orcollars, which might have become damaged by the reciprocalhammering to free the slips. In case of wear, the. rubber cup may easilybe replaced.

While I have described mytool as particularly adapted for use insandfracting and like treatments, it is obvious that it may be usedsuccessfully for other purposes in the oil. and gas fields. One such usewould be to seal off an upper portion of a casing from a lower portionof: the same casing, yet permitting a pipe communication through theseal if so desired.

While I show the cross pin 36 in the member 12, it may well be placed atany desired location such as the member 35. There is some advantage inhaving this member 36 within the member 35. Assuming that for someunkown reason the bell portion 30 would fail to disengage from therubber cap gasket 29, it would be possibleto pass down within the casing21 string of sucker rods. and: hammer on this member 36, thereby forcingthe pipe 19 and the bell downwardly from the rubber cup. However,regardless of where the pin 36is placed,

a plumb. bob may be lowered through the pipe 11 to engage the same fordetermining depth.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of my highpressure casing packer without departing from. the real spirit andpurpose of my. invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claims,any. modified forms ofstructure or use of mechanical equivalents; whichmay be reasonably included within their scope.

I claim:

1. In a device of the class described, a pipe section, a wedge slipexpander slidably mounted on said pipe section, a plurality of wedgeslips slidably mounted on said" wedge slip expander, an invertedresilient cup operatively secured tosaid wedge slip expander, a bellmember= operatively: secured to said pipe section capable of enter-ingand: expanding said cup when said pipe section'is moved upwardlyrelative to said wedge slip expander, a pipe length, a plate on-saidpipe length, a rod secured to each of'said'wedge slipsextendingupwardlyand slid} ably through said plate, a stop member on the upper end ofeach-or said rods to limit any movement of the rods through the plate, ameans for limiting the sliding movement ofsaid wedge slips on said wedgeslip expandentand" ameansfor operatively detachably connecting said.pipe length to said pipe section.

2. In a device of-the class described, a pipe section, awedge slipexpander slidably mounted on said pipe section, a plurality of wedgeslips dovetailed and slidably mounted onsaidwedge slip expander, aninvertedresilient cup operatively secured to said wedge slip expander,a'

bell member operatively secured to said pipe section" capable ofentering and expanding said cup when said pipe section is moved upwardlyrelative to said wedgeslip expander, a pipe length, a plate on said pipelength, a rod-secured to each- 0f said wedge slips extendin'g up wardly.and. slidably through said plate, a stopmember on.the1upperendof each-0fsaid rods to-lirnitany movo ment offthe rods through' the'plate, a.means for-"limiting the sliding-movement of said wedge slips 011'. saidwedge V rality of wedge slipsi slidably mounted on said wedge slipexpander, an inverted resilient cup operatively secured to said wedgeslip expander, a bell member operatively secured to said pipe sectioncapable of entering and expandingv said cup when said pipe section ismoved upwardly relative to said cone bearing member, a pipe length, aplate on said-pipe length, arodsecured to each of said wedge slipsextending upwardly and slidably through said plate, a stop member on theupper end of each of said rods to' limit any movement of the rodsthrough the plate, a means for limiting the sliding movement of said.wedge slips onsaidwedge slip expander, and a means for operativelydetachably connecting said pipe length to said pipe section.

4'. In a deviceof the class described, a pipe section, a wedge slipexpander longitudinally slidably mounted on saidpipesection, a wedgeslip slidably mounted on said wedge slip expander, an inverted flexibleresilient cup member operatively secured to the said wedge slipexpander, a bell member operatively secured to the lower end portion ofsaid pipe section capable of entering. and enlarging said cup member, apipe, a rod secured to said wedge: slip, means for limiting relativevertical movement between. said rod and said pipe, and a means fordetachably securing said pipeto said-pipe section.

5. Ina device. of the class described, a pipe section, a wedge slipexpander longitudinally slidably mounted on said pipe section, a wedgeslip slidably mounted on said wedge slip expander, an inverted flexibleresilient cup member. operatively secured to the said' wedge slipexpander, a bell member operatively secured to the lower end portionofsaid pipe section capable of entering and enlarging said cup member, apipe, a rod secured to said wedge slip, means for limiting relativevertical movement between said: rod and said pipe, and a threadedfitting for detachably securing said pipe to said pipe section; one ofthe threads of which is left handed.

6; In-a device of the class described, a pipe section,-a wedge slipexpander longitudinally slidably mounted on said pipe section, a wedgevslip slidably mounted on said wedgeslipexpander, an inverted flexibleresilient cup member operativcly' secured to the said wedge slipexpander, a bell member operatively secured to the lower end portion of:said pipe section capable of entering and enlarging said cup member, apipe, a rod secured to said wedge slip, means for limiting relativevertical movement between said rod and said pipe, and threadedfittings-for enlargingsaid cup member, a pipe, a rod secured tosaidwedge slip,.means-forr limiting relative vertical movementbetweensaid rodand-said pipe, and threaded fittings for detachablysecuring said pipe to said pipe section; one of said fittingshavingboth= aright hand and a left hand thread; said. bell, pipesectiou,fittings, and pipe, communicatingwith-each otheiz.

References Citedlin thez-file of this. patent UNITED S'IA'DES PATENTSS'ttnie-efal. Mar; 6, 1934 Knox June-25; 1940

